Forming relationships for mutual goals

Forming relationships for mutual goals

How can agents and tourist boards work closely together to increase bookings? In our latest edition of Lunch with Travel Weekly, editor Jeremy Skidmore asks what can be done to improve the relationships between those selling holidays and those promoting the destinations

Tourist boards and travel agents seldom made good bedfellows.

Agents complain that tourist boards are difficult to communicate with; put too much emphasis on working with tour operators; and refuse pay for training programmes.

For their part, tourist boards often see retailers as apathetic and complain that it is more cost effective to deal direct with the public. To debate these issues and find common ground for the future, we invited Chris Lee, marketing and public relations manager UK and Ireland for the Tourism Authority of Thailand; Claire Morrow, marketing executive for Malaysia Tourism; Manuel Butler, UK director for the Spanish Tourist Office; and Sue Foxall, business development manager for the Global Travel Group, to share their views.

What’s the role of tourist boards?

All the tourist office representatives said their remit was to increase visitors to their respective destinations.

Thailand attracted 426,000 UKvisitors last year, an increase of 11% over 1998.

Lee said: “It would be arrogant to say that we are responsible for tourism growth but we do our best to have a positive impact. We will motivate the trade in any way we can.”

Spain is by far the most popular destination for UKholidaymakers, with 12.3 million UK visitors last year. Butler believes his challenge is to make people familiar with the less popular areas of the country.

“We have to fight the image of Spain being purely a beach destination,”he said. “In October we are launching a course for agents to specialise in Spain.”

Malaysia attracted 140,000 UK visitors last year, but the level is rising rapidly. Marketing executive Claire Morrow sees the value of trade relations.

She said: “We’re now committed to an agent programme but we’ve never done one before as we’ve always worked with tour operators.”

The agents’ view

Foxall welcomed the plans by tourist offices to work with travel agents.

“Generally we see tourist boards working more closely with tour operators than travel agents,” she said. “Trying to get a quick answer on the phone from a tourist office is difficult and trying to get them to spend money is difficult.”

Fam trips

Lee said a lot of fam trips are very boring for agents and tourist boards need to think about what will help sales.

“What’s the point of walking round lots of hotels? The agents are not going to remember the superior rooms,” he said.

“We offer activities like Thai massage and cookery classes. That way you remember the hotel for the experience you’ve had.”

Foxall agreed that fam trips are useful, but said those running them had to make them worthwhile.

“Iwas whizzed round the hotels of four Caribbean islands by a certain tour operator and I vowed never to sell that tour operator again,” she said. “It had wrong effect. You need a mixture of instruction and free time on a fam trip.”

Roadshows/events

All our guests felt it was a challenge to get agents to attend events. It is hard to get time off during the day and counter clerks will not always give up social time to go to an evening event. The Cayman Islands Department of Tourism once held a dinner for agents and despite receiving acceptances, not one person turned up.

Foxall said:”The venue is important – it’s got to be somewhere that excites agents.”

Her comments were backed up by Morrow.

“We’ve had events in lots of difference places. One was in a university, another on a barge. They’ve been fun and they’ve worked.”

Training courses

Our tourist board guests agreed on the value of training for agents but had differing views on the effective ways of getting the message across. TAT, in conjunction with Travel Weekly, involved agents in the making of a training video of the country. Agents who received the video and used it to train their staff about selling the destination reported it as a great success.

“Many people offer correspondence courses but when do agents have time to do them?” said Lee.

Spain, however, is going down this more traditional route of training agents.

Butler said: “For us the correspondence course is a filter to get people who are really interested in Spain, because they have to pay for it. We are not necessarily interested in young people, we are interested in people who are selling Spain.”

Web sites

The tourist offices represented all had Web sites offering information to potential holidaymakers but they are not bookable sites. Lee said TAT’s Web site answered some of the most commonly asked questions about Thailand and, during the conversation, he and Foxall agreed to investigate the possibility of linking their Web sites.

Length of stay

Tourist boards have been criticised for sending representatives to a market for only a few years at a time, making it hard for them to forge long-term trade relations.

Butler is 10 months into a stay of four or five years.

He said:”The most productive year is the third year, when you have established relationships and before you are thinking of the next destination.”

Lee has a mixture of Thai and non-Thai people working at TAT, which he feels benefits the organisation.

“I have a Thai director, which is very useful. Sometimes I need things done in Thailand and I just couldn’t get them done, because I’m English.”

“What’s the point of walking round lots of hotels? The agents are not going to remember the superior rooms.”

Chris Lee, marketing and public relations manager UKandIreland, Tourism Authority of Thailand

“Iwas once whizzed round the hotels of four Caribbean islands by a certain tour operator and I vowed never to sell that tour operator again, let alone the destination.”

Sue Foxall, business development manager, Independent Options

“We are not necessarily interested in young people, we are interested in people who are selling Spain.” Manuel Butler, UK director, Spanish Tourist Office

Hot topics: discussing trade relations, from left, are Isabel Choat, features editor, Travel Weekly; Claire Morrow, marketing executive, Tourism Malaysia; Chris Lee, marketing and public relations manager UK and Ireland, Tourism Authority of Thailand; Sue Foxall, business development director, Independent Options; Jeremy Skidmore, editor, Travel Weekly; and Manuel Butler, UK director, Spanish Tourist Office

Predictions for the future

“Communication is the first step to greater promotion of a destination. Ihope the tourist boards spend more time with the people who are selling holidays, rather than those who are marketing to them.”

Sue Foxall, business development manager, Independent Options

“Long haul is the real sun on the horizon and is fast becoming the sector where agents can make money. We’re a long way from people booking tailor-made long-haul itineraries on the Internet.”

Chris Lee, marketing and public relations manager UKandIreland, Tourism Authority of Thailand

“We’re starting to work with travel agents and we really have to educate people on what is in Malaysia. Alot of people seem surprised that it’s a civilised country.”

Claire Morrow,marketing executive, Tourism Malaysia

“The business is changing and we are demanding more from agents. We are creating the channels to improve communication between agents and the Spanish tourist board.”

Manuel Butler, UK director, Spanish Tourist Office